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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2014
In 1926, Lord Beaverbrook introduced in his Sunday Express a biographical series under the oxymoron: “Splendid Failures.” The purpose was to praise public figures who had been branded failures. The first person Beaverbrook chose as a subject for his new feature was Charles F. G. Masterman, who fulfilled the purpose of the series, Beaverbrook believed, because Masterman's success outweighed his failure to endure on the political scene. Dictating Beaverbrook's choice was Masterman's work in carrying through Part I (which dealt with health insurance) of the National Insurance Act of 1911. Beaverbrook concluded that Masterman should be given “full credit” for this accomplishment. Charles Masterman was not undeserving of Beaverbrook's attention for no one worked with more dedication than he to guarantee the Parliamentary passage of this important Edwardian social reform. Masterman's support for health insurance has generally been acknowledged, but his administrative ability, used to guarantee the practical implementation of the social reform legislation, has seldom been recognized. In fact, Masterman as a political figure has received only limited attention. This perhaps has been the result of the concern by historians with the decline in the fortunes of the Liberal Party as well as their tendency to label Masterman a pessimist. Masterman, nevertheless, regarded health insurance optimistically, satisfied that it represented a positive outcome of his long-time involvement with social criticism and hoping that its success would encourage the Liberal Party to assume a more radical social reform policy.
1 Sunday Express, 12 December 1926, p. 12Google ScholarPubMed.
2 Masterman met Lloyd George on 17 October 1908, and their friendship quickly developed. Masterman, Lucy, “Recollections of David Lloyd George,” History Today, IX (March, 1959): 160–161Google Scholar. Masterman also committed himself to what he called Lloyd George's effort to create a ’real democratic policy.” Masterman, Lucy, C. F. G. Masterman: A Biography (London, 1968/19397), P- 94Google Scholar. Masterman, wrote one biographer, apparently got as close to Lloyd George as anybody. Davies, W. Watkins, Lloyd George—1863-1914 (London, 1939), p. 451Google Scholar.
3 Gardiner, A.G., “Charles Masterman,” The Nation, 26 November 1927, p. 309Google Scholar, and SirPetrie, Charles, The Edwardians (New York, 1965), p. 59Google Scholar.
4 Jones, Peter d'Alroy, The Christian Socialist Revival, 1877-1914. Religion, Class, and Social Conscience in Victorian England (Princeton, N.J., 1968), pp. 170, 180, 198, and 223CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Mowat, C. L., “The Approach of the Welfare State in Great Britain,” American Historial Review, LVIII (October, 1952): 57Google Scholar.
5 G. P. Gooch, an intimate of Masterman in those days, wrote that “it was always a happy moment when he saw batches of them off at the station” (Under Six Reigns [London, 1958], p. 85Google Scholar).
6 F. M. Head to Lucy Masterman, undated, quoted in Masterman, Lucy, C. F. G. Masterman, p. 28Google Scholar.
7 Masterman wrote or edited three books between 1901 and 1905: The Heart of the Empire (1901), From the Abyss of its Inhabitants by one of Them (1902), and In Peril of Change: Essays Written in Time of Tranquility (1905). These were, like his journal articles, largely concerned with the social reform scene.
8 Anderson, Moss, Noel Buxton: A life (London, 1952), p. 31Google Scholar.
9 Dudley, Barker, Prominent Edwardians (New York, 1969), p. 4Google Scholar.
10 Beatrice Webb referred to Masterman as combining High Anglicanism with his sentimental and pessimistic Radicalism, (Our Partnership, eds. Drake, Barbara and Cole, Margaret I. [London, 1948;, p. 309Google ScholarPubMed). And Chesterton, G. K., The Autobiography of G. K. Chesterton, p. 120Google Scholar. Samuel Hynes is only the most recent contributor to Masterman's pessimistic image, styling him as a Liberal whose imagination failed, or worse, as an example of the tailure of intellectualism to be active, (The Edwardian Turn of Mind [Princeton, N. J., 1968], pp. 57 and 70Google Scholar).
11 Masterman, C. F. G., “Towards a Civilization,” Independent Review, I (May, 1904): 497–517Google Scholar.
12 Masterman, C. F. G., In Peril of Change: Essays Written in Time of Tranquility (London, 1905), pp. xi–xiiGoogle Scholar.
13 Masterman, C. F. G., From the Abyss of its Inhabitants by one of Them, “Modern Problem” Series (London, 1911), p. 25Google Scholar. Masterman's writings reflected a deep understanding of the plight of the poor, acquired by living in direct contact with them for years. He objected vigorously to studies made by those writers visiting the ghetto for a short time. London's, Jack work, The People of the Abyss (1903)Google Scholar particularly drew his ire. He called it a book expected of the “more violent journalists who visit our abyss seeking sensation” (Daily News 4 November 1903, p. 5Google ScholarPubMed). On the other hand, he had great admiration for the sociological statistics gathered by Booth, Charles, calling his Life and Labour of the People of London (1902–1903)Google Scholar the most valuable sociological publication of the year. Daily News, 30 December 1903, p. 13Google ScholarPubMed.
14 Masterman, C. F. G., ed., The Heart of the Empire (London, 1901), p. 13Google Scholar.
15 The strong moralistic argument of many early Edwardian reformers is explained well by Collins, Doreen, “The Introduction of Old Age Pensions in Great Britain,” His¬torical Journal, 8, (1965): 246–259CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Brown, John, “Charles Booth and Labour Colonies, 1889-1905,” Economic History Review, 21 (1968), 352 and 356Google Scholar, and Titmus, Richard M., Essays on the Welfare State (2d ed.; Boston, 1969), pp. 17–19Google Scholar.
16 Masterman stressed, for instance, the ugliness of the drab slum streets that wore on the nerves “with a sense of personal injury.” The Heart of the Empire, pp. 16-18. Also see his In Peril of Change, pp. 152-153.
17 From the Abyss, p. 62.
18 The Heart of the Empire, pp. 30-31.
19 Masterman, C. F. G., “The Problem of the Unemployed,” Independent Review, IV (January, 1905): 553–571Google Scholar.
20 The Heart of the Empire, pp. 33-37.
21 In Peril of Change, pp. 293-299.
22 Commonwealth, VI (December, 1901), 367Google Scholar.
23 Daily News, 9 November 1905, p. 6Google ScholarPubMed.
24 Masterman, C. F. G., “The Reply of a Candidate,” Commonwealth, X (October, 1905): 296–299Google Scholar.
25 Masterman, C. F. G., “The Outlook for Social Reform,” Independent Review, VII (October 1905): 132–148Google Scholar.
26 See Bealey, Frank and Pelling, Henry, Labour and Politics (London, 1958), p. 266Google Scholar, also Michael Craton and McCready, H. W., The Great Liberal Revival, 1903-6 (London, 1966), pp. 15–23Google Scholar. This view of the Liberal failure to deal with social issues during the 1906 election has been somewhat altered by A. K. Russell's study of the election which shows a wider commitment to social reform by Liberal candidates than earlier noted. Still, it indicates that Masterman touched more specific issues than most other Liberal candidates. Russell, Alan K., Liberal Landslide: The General Election of 1906 (Hamden, Connecticut, 1973), p. 65 and pp. 71–74Google Scholar.
27 Masterman's acceptance of office, wrote James A. Salter, then a secretary to Masterman and later Lord Salter, was “to the surprise and dismay of some of his left-wing friends; Mary Macarthur sent him a brief post card ‘et tu brute’: which severed personal relations for some years.” Salter, Lord James Arthur, Memoirs of a Public Servant (London, 1961), p. 62Google Scholar. J. A. Pease, Chief Whip, supported Masterman for office with the primary reason to curtail his independent actions in the House. Pease noted that he “was glad his tongue was tied & that he might see the difficulties of putting into practice his theories at the local Govmt. Board. …” Pease's Diary, 7 April 1908, cited in Hazelhurst, Cameron, “Asquith as Prime Minister, 1908-1916,” English Historical Review, 85 (July, 1970): 510Google Scholar.
28 Draft of a letter to Mr. Asquith, 15 January 1909, Masterman, L., C. F. G. Masterman, p. 126Google Scholar.
29 Ibid., p. 126. Masterman earlier turned to writing as a means to overcome a personal disappointment. In introducing a reprint of The Heart of the Empire, Bentley Gilbert sees as one reason for Masterman putting together this book his disappointment with the rout of Liberal candidates in the 1900 election (”Introduction,” The Heart of the Empire [New York, 1973], p. xviGoogle Scholar).
30 The Nation, 19 November 1927, p. 265Google ScholarPubMed.
31 BL MSS, Herbert Gladstone Papers, 46047, C.F.G.M. to Gladstone, 9 February 1910. This letter is Masterman's answer to Gladstone's complaint.
32 Masterman became a close friend of Churchill about 1907. Beatrice Webb remarked that Churchill and Masterman “seem to be almost sentimental friends” (Our Partnership, p. 404).
33 According to Colin Cross the detailed “political control” of the Bill was assigned to Masterman who “combined a genius for private friendship with considerable gifts in the exposition of complicated matters on the platform and in Parliament” (The Liberals in Power 1905-1914 [London, 1963], p. 147Google ScholarPubMed). Another author wrote that Masterman “may, without exaggeration, be said to have given his political life to the Insurance Act” (Davies, , Lloyd George, p. 379Google Scholar).
34 Gilbert, Bentley B., The Evolution of National Insurance in Great Britain: The Origins of the Welfare State (London, 1966), p. 303Google Scholar. Masterman was the first government offical to see the draft of the Bill on 2 February 1911. Braithwaite, William J., Lloyd George's Ambulance Wagon: Being the Memoirs of William J. Braithwaite, 1911-1912, ed. Bunbury, Henry N. (London, 1957), p. 205Google Scholar.
35 Bunbury, , in Lloyd George's Ambulance Wagon, p. 19Google Scholar.
36 Gilbert, , The Evolution of National Insurance, p. 420Google Scholar.
37 Bunbury, , in Lloyd George's Ambulance Wagon, pp. 18–19Google Scholar.
38 Lloyd George's secretary, Frances Stevenson, noted that Masterman “was a tower of strength to L.G. during the framing and passage of the Insurance Act.” George, Frances Lloyd, The Years that are Past (London, 1967), p. 45Google ScholarPubMed. See also Simon, Viscount, Retrospect: The Memoirs of the Rt. Hon. Viscount Simon (London, 1952), p. 377Google Scholar.
39 Gilbert, , The Evolution of National Insurance, p. 314Google Scholar.
40 The Times, 28 October 1910, p. 10Google Scholar.
41 Braithwaite, , Lloyd George's Ambulance Wagon, p. 303Google Scholar. Richard W. Harris, early associated with health insurance, also feared the great insurance companies, but he had little of Braithwaite's interest in the friendly societies and “little of his enthusiasm,” National Health Insurance in Great Britian, 1911-1916 (London, 1946), p. 8Google Scholar.
42 Braithwaite, , Lloyd George's Ambulance Wagon, pp. 209 and 212Google Scholar.
43 Ibid., p. 289.
44 London School of Economics Archives, Braithwaite Papers, Diary, 19 February 1911.
45 Braithwaite, , Lloyd George's Ambulance Wagon, p. 217Google Scholar.
46 Ibid., pp. 302-303. Richard Harris recorded that Braithwaite himself, by the end of 1911, was so tired that he was “on the verge of a breakdown.” Harris, Richard W., Not So Humdrum: The Autobiography of a Civil Servant (London, 1939), p. 160Google Scholar.
47 The Times, 13 December 1911, p. 7Google ScholarPubMed. Section Eighty-three of the National Insurance Act gave powers to the Chancellor to appoint a chairman of the Joint Commission. There is an undated copy of Masterman's appointment and a later warrant stating the date of this as 30 December 1911. Great Britain, Public Record Office MSS, National Health Insurance Joint Committee, Pin. 2/1.
48 Masterman, C. F. G., Obituary for Morant, The Nation, 20 March 1920, p. 857Google Scholar, and Masterman, Lucy, C. F. G. Masterman, p. 220Google Scholar. The question of Lloyd George passing over Braithwaite, who did so much to write the legislation for health insurance, is given much space by historians. Certainly Braithwaite was more positive towards the Act and did more to create its character than Morant, but Lloyd George had less to do with Morant being named a commissioner than did Masterman. Masterman, having worked with him for months, never seems to have considered him for a position of commissioner, though he expected Braithwaite to choose to work with Morant on the English Commission—where most of the work would be—rather than with him on the Joint Commission. See Braithwaite's own comments, Lloyd George's Ambulance Wagon, pp. 271-272. For more favorable reactions to Braithwaite's cause, see Bunbury, “Introduction,” ibid., p. 37, Cross, , The Liberals in Power, p. 153Google Scholar, and Gilbert, , The Evolution of National Health Insurance, p. 429Google Scholar.
49 Masterman, , The Nation, 20 March 1920, p. 856Google Scholar.
50 Salter, , Memoirs ofa Public Servant, pp. 62–63Google Scholar.
51 Braithwaite, , Lloyd George's Ambulance Wagon, p. 292Google Scholar.
52 Cited in Masterman, Lucy, C. F. G. Masterman, p. 241Google Scholar.
53 Gilbert, , The Evolution of National Insurance, p. 394Google Scholar.
54 Braithwaite, , Lloyd George's Ambulance Wagon, p. 303Google Scholar. Actually the questions Masterman answered numbered even more than Braithwaite's estimated 1200. From 14 February, 1912 until 14 February 1913 when the insurance legislation was most before the House, Masterman answered about 1850 questions. They were regarded important enough for the demand to grow to have the published separate from the Debates. In August 1912, Masterman told the Commons that all questions and answers regarding the Act would be published without deletions. Parliamentary Debates (House of Commons) 5th ser., Vo. XLI (5 August 1912): 2665Google Scholar.
55 Salter, , Memoirs of a Public Servant, p. 62Google Scholar.
56 Debates, Vol. XLI (29 July 1912): 1754Google Scholar.
57 Harris, , Not So Humdrum, p. 158Google Scholar.
58 Debates, Vol. XXXVIII (22 May 1912): 1998Google Scholar.
59 Ibid., Vol. XLI (29 July 1912): 1760.
60 British Medical Journal, 6 January 1912, p. 38Google ScholarPubMed.
61 Ibid., 20 April 1912, pp. 910-911.
62 Ibid., 11 May 1912, pp. 1086-1087.
63 Braithwaite, , Lloyd George's Ambulance Wagon, p. 287Google Scholar.
64 Masterman, Lucy, C. F. G. Masterman, p. 236Google Scholar. One of the more important men of this “loan collection” was Warren Fisher. Masterman later told his wife that “we never got going until Warren Fisher came in.” Harris, borrowed from Inland Revenue, call the national insurance group a ministry of talent, and noted that part of Fisher's job was to locate the best men available and organize “some sort of heirarchy.” (Harris, Not So Humdrum, p. 170).
65 Debates, Vol. XLI (11 July 1912): 2173–2189Google Scholar.
66 National Insurance Weekly, 29 July 1912, p. 169Google ScholarPubMed.
67 Debates, Vol XLI (29 July 1912): 1754–1764Google Scholar.
68 Riddell, Lord George, More Pages From My Diary, 1908-1914 (London, 1934), 28 July 1912, p. 86Google Scholar.
69 British Medical Journal, 27 July 1912, pp. 188–189Google ScholarPubMed.
70 The Nation, 10 August 1912, p. iiGoogle ScholarPubMed.
71 W.S.C. to L.G., 1 September 1912, cited in Randolph S. Churchill, Companion to Vol. II (Young Statesman, 1901-1914) of his biography Winston S. Churchill (2 Pts.; London, 1969), III: 1644Google Scholar.
72 Lancet, 5 October 1912, pp. 956–959Google ScholarPubMed.
73 Ibid., 26 October 1912, pp. 1163-1164 and British Medical Journal, 26 October 1912, pp. 1154–1155Google ScholarPubMed.
74 Lancet, 2 November 1912, p. 1229 and British Medical Journal, 2 November 1912, p. 1236Google ScholarPubMed.
75 Debates, Vol. LVI (23 July 1913): 2939–2940Google Scholar. The 160 placed the average weekly earnings at £3, while the doctors had hoped to place it at £2 per week. Gilbert, , The Evolution of National Insurance, p. 443Google Scholar. The £160 was the tax limit on wages at the time, and it represented about four-fifths of the tax-paying population.
76 Great Britain, Parliament Parliamentary Papers, 1913, Vol. XXXVI (Reports, Vol. 1), Cmnd. 6907Google Scholar, “Report for 1912-13 on the Administration of the National Insurance Act, Part I (Health Insurance),” p. 139. This report by Morant, with Masterman's introduction, is a fine review of the government's putting the Act into force.
77 Brand, Jeanne L., Doctors and the State: The British Medical Profession and Government Action in Public Health, 1870-1912 (Baltimore, 1965), p. 227Google Scholar and Gilbert, , The Evolution of National Insurance p. 437Google Scholar.
78 Parliamentary Papers, Cmnd. 6907, p. 140.
79 Braithwaite, , Lloyd George's Ambulance Wagon, p. 297Google Scholar.
80 SirFitzroy, Almeric, Memoirs, 3d edition (2 vols.; London, 1925), 6 December 1912, II, 499Google Scholar.
81 Great Britain, Public Record Office MSS, Treasury Office, T172/104.
82 Ibid., T172/105.
83 Brand, , Doctors and the State, p. 227Google Scholar.
84 Gilbert, , The Evolution of National Insurance, pp. 405–407Google Scholar.
85 The figure of 10,000 doctors, according to government sources, quickly grew. By 10 January it stood at 15,000 with only a few districts having incomplete panels or none at all. Parliamentary Papers, Cmnd. 6907, pp. 146-147.
86 Gilbert cites several instances where doctors held out until there were rumors of doctors approaching from other areas, and then they rushed to sign up for panel service. He concludes that by mid-January so many panels were formed that monopolies had to be formed in only five areas. Gilbert, , The Evolution of National Insurance, p. 415Google Scholar.
87 Debates, Vol. XLVI (9 January 1913): 1375Google Scholar.
88 Lancet, 11 January 1913, pp. 111–112Google ScholarPubMed.
89 Cited in Masterman, Lucy, C.F.G. Masterman, p. 253Google Scholar.
90 Debates, Vol. XLI (29 July 1912): 1754–1764Google Scholar.
91 Masterman to Buxton, 16 March 1901, cited in Masterman, Lucy, C.F.G. Masterman, p. 41Google Scholar.
92 Masterman, C. F. G., “The Outlook for Social Reform,” Independent Review, VII (October, 1905): 132–148Google Scholar.
93 Masterman, C.F.G., “Politics in Transition,” Nineteenth Century and After, CCCLXXI (January, 1908): pp. 1–17Google Scholar.
94 Many items found in Masterman's writings had been taken up by the Liberals, and Masterman had worked closely with other Liberals to see some of his hopes written into law: school meals for underfed children, regulation of shop hours, old age pensions, unemployment insurance, graduated taxation. Not all of these fulfilled his hopes in legislation, however, and an agricultural rejuvenation, minimum wages, separation of church and state, housing (especially rural housing), educational training for the young who left school, and a Ministry of Labor had hardly yet been faced.
95 Masterman made his lifelong opposition to the Labor Party clear after the First World War. Before that he believed that he Labour Party would not become a political threat, thus, his statements about it are not clear. See Us New Liberalism (London, 1920), pp. 25–26Google ScholarPubMed, and “The Case for a Liberal Party,” The Nation, 22 May 1920, p. 244Google ScholarPubMed. For prewar statements: “Liberalism and Labour,” Nineteenth Century, LX (November, 1906): 706–718Google Scholar and Commonwealth, October 1905, pp. 296–298Google ScholarPubMed, and The Nation, 3 August 1907, pp. 825–826Google ScholarPubMed. He was not, of course, alone in his distrust of the Labour Party. See Havighurst, Alfred F., Radical Journalist: H. W. Massingham (1860-1924) (Cambridge, 1974), p. 289Google Scholar and Smith, Harold L., “The New Liberal Movement in Great Britian: 1888-1924,” Ph.d. dissertation, University of Iowa, 1971, p. 154Google Scholar.
96 Rowland, Peter, The Last Liberal Governments: Unfinished Business, 1911-1914 (London, 1971), p. 3, noteGoogle Scholar.
97 Rowland lists High Churchmen “such as Masterman” along with the Fabians, the Salvation Army, and the Labour Party as forces carrying on the program to do something about the “condition of the people.” He also who concludes that the Liberals are remembered for the social reform measures passed. Ibid., pp. 356-358. J. H. Plumb suggests that the one that sets the Edwardians apart from their past or future was that of “gusto,” “The Edwardians,” Horizon, XIII (Autumn, 1971): 32Google Scholar.
98 House of Lords Library, David Lloyd George Papers, H/273, clipping of Masterman's, article from the Sunday Express, 30 January 1927Google Scholar.